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"Magic is what makes fantasy fantastic," someone says, "you can't apply rules to them or else it loses wonder!" I respond, "Sure, but if you want to write them you will certainly want to know how they work." Writing is all about execution, and I find applying some basic laws of physics to magic systems make them more understandable and realistic. Here, I'm going to outline my basic method for developing a magic system.Column by Chaos2651Discuss it in our forums.

In Hemalurgy, there are two subjects. There is the one you are stealing the power from (The victim) and the one you are giving the power to (The endowed). When stealing powers from the victim, the metal spike must be driven through their heart and kill them, absorbing their spirit. Only when it comes time to endow the power does the position of the piercing matter, hence why Inquisitors and Kandra (And presumably Koloss) always have their spikes in the same places.

Unless you can find an example from the text or Brandon where a Hemalurgic victim is killed in some way other than a metal spike through their heart, I'm going to have to stick with my side.

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I came because I heard stories, tales of a lengendary man. A man who was known as the Lord of the Mists, a man they named Survivor. A man called Hope.

newbie alert! I've read Elantris and the Mistborn trilogy and missed the Hoid thing completely. However, now that I have been perusing the questions and observations in this thread, is it possible that Hoid may be the Creator? The being the "shards" are derived from? He/it/she could be in a weakened state due to being divided amongst many different worlds in the form of shards and can only observe and provide subtle "nudges" through affecting emotions. Just a thought. Has this been brought up before?

Erm, right then. Here's a question that's been bugging me for some time. If it's already been covered somewhere in the 700+ topics in this forum, point me in the right direction.

As a fan from California, I am unable to obtain Dragonsteel or any other BYU-exclusive material of yours, so I can only understand from my moderate lurking how the cosmology of your universe works. As far as I can tell, there was a supreme deity of some sort, Adonalsium, whose name I suspect is derived from the Hebrew "Adonai." Adonalsium was split by something (or did he split himself?) into 16 "shards," like Ruin, Preservation, and possibly Austre, and these shard-gods are what actually created the various worlds of your universe. (Please, somebody tell me if I got that all correctly.)

Anyway, the focus of my question is beings connected to shards, like Hoid. Is Sazed also one of these beings now? He wasn't the original Ruin or Preservation, but he wields the powers of both. Did Hoid gain his powers in a similar fashion to Sazed? Indeed, can we expect to see planet-hopping Sazed cameos?

Erm, right then. Here's a question that's been bugging me for some time. If it's already been covered somewhere in the 700+ topics in this forum, point me in the right direction.

As a fan from California, I am unable to obtain Dragonsteel or any other BYU-exclusive material of yours, so I can only understand from my moderate lurking how the cosmology of your universe works. As far as I can tell, there was a supreme deity of some sort, Adonalsium, whose name I suspect is derived from the Hebrew "Adonai." Adonalsium was split by something (or did he split himself?) into 16 "shards," like Ruin, Preservation, and possibly Austre, and these shard-gods are what actually created the various worlds of your universe. (Please, somebody tell me if I got that all correctly.)

Anyway, the focus of my question is beings connected to shards, like Hoid. Is Sazed also one of these beings now? He wasn't the original Ruin or Preservation, but he wields the powers of both. Did Hoid gain his powers in a similar fashion to Sazed? Indeed, can we expect to see planet-hopping Sazed cameos?

This speculation is interesting, but I've seen hints in some of his comments that the story is much larger than this, somehow.

-ium denotes a metal. As does the use of the word "shards", which also specifies that it has a well-bonded structure; calcium, for example, crumbles rather than shattering.

Dragonsteel could be related, but I doubt it. Then again, Brandon's stated perspective on fantasy is "why not?", so can we really expect him to keep dragons out of such a huge universe? Of course, that begs the question of what exactly Dragonsteel is (if it isn't Adonalsium).

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Hero of Ages: Impressive Regality Over Niceness, Y'all좋아! This time with more ecstatic! 좋네!!! I'll say it again in french! Trois fois voiture!!! Ça va. C'est vrai. C'est bien.High Knight of the Grand Pie of the Holy Order of Pie, The Left Hand of Pie

True, but the rule does have notable exceptions within BS's work. Khlennium, for example, was the name of a whole country, so it couldn't be that far-fetched for the name of a god to have the same suffix.

(I know this comes a month after the fact, but my internet access is sporadic at best. Apologies.)

But that city was mentioned in the Mistborn series, so it's entirely possible that Khlennium is a material as well. Of course, it's also possible that everything has metallic sounding names because of the importance of metals.

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Hero of Ages: Impressive Regality Over Niceness, Y'all좋아! This time with more ecstatic! 좋네!!! I'll say it again in french! Trois fois voiture!!! Ça va. C'est vrai. C'est bien.High Knight of the Grand Pie of the Holy Order of Pie, The Left Hand of Pie